• by Karl Greenberg , February 13, 2008

Toyota is pitching its compact Corolla sedan to younger consumers who fancy themselves young Jay Gatsbys. The effort actually began during last week's Super Bowl XLII with a humorous spot set in the parking lot of a mansion and focusing on the car's sound insulation. The humor continues with a raft of ads touting the car, which has gotten a stem-to-stern redesign for 2009.

The effort, via Saatchi & Saatchi, L.A., aims to appeal to "young achievers"--who might otherwise be lusting for a Bimmer or a Lexus, for that matter. The campaign posits the car as an affordable alternative to a luxury car. Tag: "Live the Dream for Less Coin."

Comprising three TV ads, print, outdoor and assorted Web elements, the push offers campy humor in a setting that's a parody of the high life. The ads are set at a baroque mansion--the "Corolla Dream Estate."

One of the TV spots has a guy ushered (forcefully) into the back seat of the car behind the driver and a Japanese chef with a ginsu knife. The chef is slicing the highly toxic blowfish on a cutting board as the car makes hairpin curves. "One bad cut and it's sayonara," says the voiceover. The horrified man in the back is offered a slice, eats it and survives.

Saatchi's Paul Goncalves, account director, and Greg Wells, creative director, say two ads are running now, with the third spot currently in production. Others will follow.

Says Wells: "The challenge was to rejuvenate the Corolla brand to those under 35." He adds that the humorous take on sophistication came from research. "We found that these people work hard and want a vehicle that reflects the fact that they are on their way up."

Goncalves says the effort avoids the usual approach to pitching entry-level cars to young consumers: cars as party and personalization accessories. "We made a conscious effort to go after a certain type of person who gets up, works hard, not a slacker ... we made a conscious effort to take our own path. We played with all sorts of over-the-top notions of wealth."

The Corolla Dream Estate at Toyota.com has video demos and games highlighting the car's features, playing on the moneyed theme. There are also 1920s-style silent film clips about vehicle features. In one, a flapper-esque maid has the butler doing the Charleston. There's even a coat of arms symbolizing the estate. A game called "Hedge Fun" demonstrates the DVD navigation system, and "Chateau 500" is a virtual driving demo.

Among elements of the print, TV, online, and outdoor campaign are banner ads that demonstrate the car's available Bluetooth by letting people make a free two-minute phone call anywhere in the U.S. from their computer via VOIP.

Web ads will run on sites like The Onion, Citysearch, Yelp, MySpace, CNN, Evite, YouTube and gaming sites like IGN, Gamespot and Shockwave. The company is also running the ads on mobile-media versions of sites like The Onion, Weather, Rolling Stone and Yahoo.

Print ads will run in magazines like People, Glamour, Maxim, Shape, Sports Illustrated, and Entertainment Weekly through September.

The effort also includes Hispanic, Asian, and African-American TV, print and interactive elements. The Hispanic campaign, "It's impossible not to fall in love with Corolla," will run on Univision, Telemundo, Telefutura and sites such as MSN Latino and AOL Latino.

The African-American campaign runs in Vibe and on shows like BET's "106" and "South Park."

The Asian market campaign, "Discover the Jeong," comprises print and: 30 TV spots in Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese on ETTV, Sino Vision and SBTV.